Cursed in Baja

Cursed-in-Baja
Cursed in Baja

If you’ve ever seen a Rob Zombie movie it’s likely you right off the bat recognize Jeff Daniel Phillips. Be it his larger than life portrayal of Herman Munster or his blood-covered role in Halloween II Phillips is a chameleon in terms of the genres he can pull off. Yes, but this is not just an actor. And now he has directed four films including Cursed In Baja which he wrote, starred in, and directed. It will have its world premiere at London’s FrightFest before being available for VOD and Blu-ray distribution through Anchor Bay Entertainment. We also have the film’s exclusive trailer, and speak to Phillips about his most personal film to date which unfortunately has not been in the best of limelight lately.

Ex-lawman Pirelli provides a hell of a performance as he strides through Mexico looking for an heir to a fortune in Los Angeles while wrestling with his dark history. However, what he discovers in Baja shakes him the most.

Although best recognized as an actor, Phillips is not new to directing as he has done music videos and short films that date back to his USC film school days. However, a trip to a horror convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the event that motivated him to work on his new feature. At that event, he was in charge of a panel with young filmmakers on some of his experiences as a filmmaker.

I just took the mic and, in true Phillips fashion, went on to say, okay guys, this is how I went about it. I would even say such and such and that and the other, Phillips said. For an hour I blabbed and came out of it pretty worn out. Then I got back to Los Angeles and wondered why I was telling them all how to do it, why wasn’t I doing it myself, and why not make a roster of all the people I could bring together to do a feature and that’s what I did.

Producer Kent Isaacs enters, telling Phillips to do it and explaining that he’s with him the whole way. Don’t think about the money, let’s begin and see where it leads.

Phillips, therefor began contacting his acquaintances and ex-bosses to facilitate the forming of the cast and crew for the film. Keith Quintero Coleman, the movie’s director of cinematography, was introduced to Phillips by mere chance on the streets of New York City after almost twenty years of not meeting. Audrey DeLuxe, one of the leading cast singers and undergoing burlesque performance, used to be busy with Phillips over a decade ago in a scenario where the latter performed for Rob Zombie who when they celebrated Sherri Moon Zombie’s birthday together. Phillips had the leverage of several years long network to fit this particular tale together.

I just started crafting this story around, what I knew, I could pull off. It was like a Robert Rodriguez thing. You just, you make your list of what you have and try to make it work, Phillips said. That’s how it started. And then it just kept snowballing, so to speak.

In Phillips’ case, all the action was directed toward disassembling the types of movies he wanted to create. He had the people, he had the location, and now the time had come to begin developing the actual story. This is where he drew inspiration from Rob Zombie and the great filmmaker’s idea.

Instead, it was more of a chronological procedure, a certain sequence of events: as the film deepened, the concept gradually came together. And that’s a Rob Zombie thing too.

I really have to hand it to him, said Phillips. When he’s on the set, he doesn’t really care if he is being precious about anything. He’s just like, Okay, this isn’t working. Regardless of whether it’s a performance, the writing, whatever, [he says] we shoot this and we shoot that. And it works so often for him. So basically, I almost do him naturally.”

A script on the go and Phillips, Isaacs, and Coleman got onto a plane to Mexico where they began to shoot on a farm in Baja. The film was Phillips and he didn’t know how to capture what they were going to capture, but was thrilled to start shooting and see what they could capture. This is how scrappy, DIY horror filmmaking works: just go shoot and see what transpires.

“There were times when we did these incredible drone shots over the canyons. And then, there are parts where there are no GPS units at, [the drone went down. So my DP had to go up the mountain to get his drone and he comes back and he falls on this barbed wire,” Phillips explicated. It was kind of lodged in his back. Man, this guy is incredible.

However, the footage shot in Mexico was not the only aspect of importance to the filmmakers. Most of this film is constructed around clips and fragments of materials that stayed on the cutting room floor after Phillips’ earlier films, and some of these films are nearly two decades old. The final form of the film is quite conceptual in style. It fuses different elements to create a characteristic story of a man going crazy. It borders on being surreal and is more of an experiment in remembering Phillips and for his character.

I integrate a lot of footage from sources in my past work, sometimes as much as 20 years back. [It footage] that I may have had to cut out from some other work, but somehow I incorporated it here, Phillips said. There was so much stuff that I could work with. And then I grew out my hair and beard and changed looks over the years and so on. So, it kind of worked out.

In fact, Phillips employs footage he shot of a young Finnegan Seeker Bell, who also appears as an adult in Cursed In Baja. This mirrors the way Richard Linklater made Boyhood. And while this was not Phillips’ purpose, it was fortuitous, especially now that Bell is a musician with fans in Mexico.

I first met him as a child so, when I saw the kid grow up, I just included it in the script, noted Phillips. Him and the rapper, Jose Conejo Martin, knew each other, so I included that in the script they recorded together. So I incorporated this into Cursed In Baja as well.”

Cursed In Baja is above all a passion project for experimenter Phillips, and an excellent homage to B-movies. Which, for Phillips, is what was intended.

We managed to achieve that and now we are going to show it in London and we are going to celebrate it. There is nothing about getting added on awards or anything, said Phillips. I just want to put it out there and make it. And for me, most of it is making it, you know?

Phillips coproduced Cursed In Anda with Kent Issacs. Executive producers include Thomas Zamback and Brian Katz. The score was made by VAL. Do not miss the premiere of the film at FrightFest this August.

For more movies like Cursed in Baja Visit 123Movies.

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